"I just wanted to see how far you would go."
The only real recommendation for A Haunted House that it has over the similarly awful Scary Movie V is its leads: Essence Atkins plays the girlfriend role mercifully straight and with some pleasing personality, and Marlon Wayans can be a strong writer/actor with an amiable screen presence, which is occasionally seen here. The first two-thirds are a well-staged recreation of (mostly the first of the) the Paranormal Activity series, but the limited scenario gives rise to very few laughs, and it does not improve when the final act takes the form of a horror greatest hits medley. However, so much of the film is empty screen time, the now-standard homophobic/misogynistic/racist elements are unpleasant, even more so as they are supposedly played for 'owned' laughs, and this film even demonstrates that rape (both female and male) by a ghost is not comedy gold. The days of the original Scary Movie are long gone, Airplane!, Hot Shots and The Naked Gun even longer, and whilst A Haunted House is not as wretchedly unwatchable as Meet The Spartans, it is nevertheless a very depressing viewing experience. These cheaply-made, quick-turnaround, weakly-scripted parodies are still hugely profitable for the studios, but there seems little hope that any of them will actually be given the time, wit and care to make any of them truly funny and enjoyable.
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